soe plot - the escape (0439659779_e001a)

8/12/2019 SOE Plot - The Escape (0439659779_e001a)

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B

oris looked down the long, dark hallway of

the prison. It looked endless.

He was being taken to a place that few people had

seen. But everyone feared it. Solitary. The other

prisoners said the word with a shudder.

Behind him, the guard laughed. “Well, this will

teach you a lesson,” he said. “Once you’ve been in

solitary, there will be no more bad behavior from you.”

The EscapeBY J. B. STAMPER



Boris forced his feet to move down the hall. He

knew there was no hope for him.

Seven years ago, he had committed a crime. It was

a crime so terrible that even he could not believe

that he had done it.

Now he was in prison for the rest of his life. He

was trapped like an animal in a cage. He could not

face it any longer!

That’s why he had tried to escape.

It had been just after sunset. He was all alone in

the courtyard. The guard who was supposed to be

there had made a mistake. He had left Boris alone.

Boris had run for the wall like an animal. He had

climbed up and was almost over. Then he had heard

the words, “Freeze, prisoner!”

And he had frozen.

That was just yesterday. Now he was headed to an

even worse cage.

“You don’t have to put me in solitary,” Boris saidto the guard in a scared voice. “I’ll never try that

again. I promise!”

The guard just laughed. “You’ll learn your lesson,”

he said again. “Maybe they’ll let you out after a few

months. But you’re a tough one. I know what you did

to get inside. You don’t deserve anybody’s pity.”

T HE ESCAPE



Boris felt hopeless. It was no good trying. He

would just have to deal with it, somehow.They were coming to the end of the hallway. Boris

saw the door at the end. He saw the bars across the

small window in the door.

He knew that this was it. The others had told him

what it would be like inside.

They were right. The guard unlocked three locks.

T HE ESCAPE



Then he swung open the door. He pushed Boris

inside.

The room was like a pen. It was long and narrow

with one bed. High up there was a small window

with bars across it.

The walls were of old, rough stone. To Boris, it

felt as if they were closing in on him.

His breath started to come in short gasps. His

heart pounded. Boris turned to the guard.

“No,” he begged. “I can’t take it here. Let me go

back to where I was. I’ll never do anything wrong

again.”

“You should have thought of that earlier,” the

guard said. Then he slammed the heavy door in

Boris’s face.

Boris reached for the door. He grabbed the bars in

his hands and tried to shake them.

“You’ll be sorry!” he yelled after the guard.

The guard just looked back and laughed.Boris sat down on the bed. He shut his eyes. He

didn’t want to look around the cell. He was afraid

that he would lose his mind.

Thunder woke Boris from a terrible nightmare. In

the meantime, rats were running at him, screeching.

He opened his eyes. He was afraid the rats were

T HE ESCAPE



T HE ESCAPE

really there. He hated rats more than anything. It

was his biggest worry . . . that there might be rats in

solitary.

Boris looked around the cell. It was almost dark.

Then a flash of lightning lit up the cell. The light

fell on the wall at the head of his bed.

In those few seconds of light, Boris saw something

that made his heart leap. One of the stones in the

wall looked different. There was a thin crack in the

cement around it.

Boris tried to fight off a new feeling of hope. But

he couldn’t help himself.

Maybe another prisoner had dug around the rock.

No one could see the crack unless they were lying on

the bed. He had only seen it because of the

lightning.

His hands were shaking. He reached down and

grabbed the large stone. He moved it back and forth.Then, suddenly, it came loose! Boris pulled, and

the rock fell forward into his hands.

As Boris stared into the hole left by the rock, a

flash of lightning lit it up. A tunnel stretched before

him . . . with a rat hurrying down into it.

Boris jumped back in horror when he saw the rat.



He thought about putting the large stone back in

place.

Then another flash of lightning cut through the

darkness of the cell. The tunnel lit up in front of

him. It seemed to welcome him to freedom.

Boris measured the size of the tunnel with his

eyes. It was narrow at the beginning. But then it

became wider. It looked wide enough for him to

crawl though.

Another flash of lightning lit up the tunnel. He

searched for any sign of the rat.

“Maybe I didn’t see it at all,” Boris whispered to

himself. “Maybe it was just a shadow of my

nightmare.”

Boris peered into the tunnel. He saw no sign of

the rat. But his eyes fell on something else. There

was a scrap piece of paper lying on the tunnel floor,

near the entrance.

He reached in and pulled it out. He felt its drysurface. The paper was wrinkled with age.

He waited impatiently for the lightning to light

up the cell again. When it did, he quickly read the

message on the paper.

“To the next prisoner who find this paper,” Boris

read. “I escaped the horror of this cell by this

T HE ESCAPE



passage. May you share my good luck.”

The light faded away before Boris could finish

reading the message. He sat in the darkness, shaking

with fear and hope.

The message seemed to be written in a dark red

liquid. He guessed that it was the blood of the person

who had written it.

At last, the lightning came again. He read on,

“This is the only way out!” The message was signed

with two initials, “N.G.”

Just then, Boris heard the guard’s footsteps

outside his cell. He threw himself over the stone and

hole. He pressed his body against the wall.

He waited as the footsteps came to a stop outside

his cell. He thought he would scream from the

horrible tension.

Then the footsteps moved away. They slowly

drifted down the hallway. Finally, the noise faded

into the night.Suddenly, Boris knew he could not wait any

longer. He stuck his head into the tunnel and pushed

the rest of his body through.

He tried to look back, but the tunnel was too

narrow. There was no turning back now.

Boris squirmed deeper and deeper into the tunnel.

T HE ESCAPE



Crawling on his stomach, he felt like a snake

slithering into its hole. He felt the tunnel grow

damper and colder.

Just as the tunnel began to grow slimy, it opened

up and became wider.

Boris stood up on his trembling legs. He tried to see

into the darkness ahead. He put his hands out in front

of him and walked slowly through the black tunnel.

The rocky walls were sharp and tore at his hands.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead with one hand

and felt warm blood oozing from it.

Boris felt sick. His legs became weak with fear. He

dropped to his knees and fell forward onto his hands.

Then he felt tiny, clawed feet run over his fingers.

Boris heard his own scream echo and echo

through the tunnel.

Once again, the tiny claws of a rat dug into his

hands. Boris jumped to his feet, hitting his head on

the low ceiling of the tunnel.Then he felt them all around him. The rats were

running over his feet. They were crawling at his legs.

Boris opened his mouth to scream. But he knew

he had to be quiet. He dug a fist into his mouth. He

made himself move forward into the tunnel.

All he could hope was the rats would not climb up

T HE ESCAPE



T HE ESCAPE



his leg. If they did, he knew he would lose his mind.

Suddenly, the tunnel sloped down at a sharp angle.

Boris’s feet slipped forward. He landed on his back.

He slid deeper and deeper into the tunnel. He no

longer felt the rats around him. He no longer heard

their claws scratching the rock.

Boris came to a stop where the floor of the tunnel

suddenly became flat. His breath was coming in short

gasps that tore at his lungs.

He picked himself up. He reached for the slimy

walls of the tunnel that he had just fallen down.

Then the truth hit him like a blow. He could

never go back. The walls of the tunnel behind him

were too steep and slippery.

He had only one chance. He had to push on. He

had to push on . . . and hope that there was an end to

the tunnel.

Boris moved himself forward. He clawed at the

walls with his hands, trying to hurry.The tunnel was beginning to feel more and more

narrow. His breath was coming in shorter and

shorter gasps.

Then the tunnel made a sharp turn to the left.

Suddenly Boris saw something that made him cry out

in relief. Through an opening in the distance, he

T HE ESCAPE



could see the pale rays of the moon.

He was almost there. He could smell the night air.

Boris struggled toward the patch of moonlight ahead

of him.

The tunnel was turning upward. Boris had to grab

both sides of the wall and dig his feet into the cracks

in the wall. Slowly, he pulled himself up. Boris felt

the blood from his cuts run down into his sleeves.

But the pain didn’t matter. All that mattered was

the patch of light ahead. Boris felt the night air

against his face. He was close now. Close to freedom.

Then a sound behind him terrified him. It was the

sound of those clawed feet. They were following him.

Boris scrambled up to the top of the tunnel even

faster. The moonlight was so bright now that he could

see his hands in front of him. He felt a rat brush

against his leg. But he had only a few yards to go.

With his last bit of strength, Boris lunged toward

the light. He felt his head crash into something hardand cold. For a moment he was stunned.

Then he opened his eyes. In front of him, the moon

shone through the bars of a heavy gate. Still pressed up

against it were the cold, white bones . . . of a skeleton.

There was no escape. There was no going back.

This was it. Just Boris . . . and the rats.

T HE ESCAPE



Most plots involve resolving some kind of conflict, and proceed in this way:

{ The introduction tells who the main character or characters are and

what the conflict or problem is.

{ Complications develop as the characters struggle with different possible solutions.

{ In the climax, the main character or characters make a final decision

that settles the conflict.

{ The story ends with the resolution: the writer suggests what the

characters feel or do, now that the conflict is over.

Developing a plot is no easy matter, especially when it comes to the climax and the

resolution. (Most of us have seen—or, as kids, perhaps written ourselves! —thatwonderful sentence that totally avoids the necessity of creating a climax and a

resolution: “And then he woke up and it was all a dream.”)

To begin to ease your students into the skill, write the definition of plot on the

chalkboard. As a preface to reading the story, lead students in a discussion of the

plots in stories they’ve already read by asking questions such as the following: As the

story opens, what kind of problem is the main character having? What complications

does she or he face in attempting to solve the problem? How does the character finally

solve the problem? What’s the result at the end of the story?

Point out to students that story plots can involve internal and external conflicts.

When a conflict is external, it is between a character and some outside person or force.Sometimes the conflict is internal. A character may be wrestling with him- or herself.

In “The Escape,” for example, Boris must decide whether to go through the tunnel.

This is an example of internal conflict, while the challenge of escaping from jail is an

About Plot

6

P L O T

Plot is the series of related events that make up the story.

Spotlight On...Literary Elements © Scholastic Teaching Resources

external conflict.

The reproducible activities will help students summarize what they’ve

learned about plot and to plan plots for stories of their own.

in this lesson



The EscapeBY J. B. STAMPER

The setting of this grisly tale is a prison. Here’s the plot:

IntroductionThe main character, Boris, is caught trying to escape from prison and is punished by

being put into solitary confinement, a situation that he naturally dreads.

ComplicationsBoris discovers a crack in the wall of the cell, finds that it leads to a tunnel, and is

afraid that there may be rats (his greatest fear!) inside it. Then, reaching in, he finds

an old wrinkled note from a former prisoner who says that he has used this tunnel to

escape the cell. So now, what to do? Crawl out of the cell and reach freedom, but

possibly encounter rats? Or stay in prison for the rest of his life?

ClimaxBoris makes his decision: Betting that there are no rats in the tunnel, he enters it and

inches slowly along. Guess what? There are rats, and they pursue Boris as he edges

toward a distant light that he thinks means escape. But when he reaches the end of

the tunnel, he finds it barred by an impenetrable gate. And lying at the foot of the

gate are the bones of the man who wrote that note so long ago.

Resolution

Boris realizes that he can neither crawl back to the cell nor escape from thetunnel. He is stuck here forever with the rats that now surround him.

S T O R Y S U M M A R Y

7Spotlight On...Literary Elements © Scholastic Teaching Resources



That’ll Teach

You a Lesson!

Name Date

In stories with well thought-out plots, the main characters learn something important or

change in some significant way.

In the space below, tell what you think the character learned. Then discuss your conclusions

with your classmates.

CHARACTER AND STORY

Boris,

in “The Escape”

LESSON THISCHARACTER LEARNED

Plot

10 Spotlight On...Literary Elements © Scholastic Teaching Resources



Plot Descriptions

Name Date

Choose one of your favorite fiction stories— Then

summarize the plot. At the bottom of this page, tell what you especially like about the book.

1. TITLE OF BOOK

Author

2. PLOT SUMMARY

In the introduction,

Here are the complications that occur:

In the climax of the story,

This is the resolution of the story:

3. I like the book because

12

Plot


a different story from the one you just read.



Changing an

Existing Plot

Name Date

If you give just a slight tweak to a story—a little change to one part of the plot—the story will take a

new direction. For example, suppose we learn in the introduction to “The Escape” that Boris has been

wrongly convicted: He never committed any crime, yet he’s been sentenced to spend the rest of his life

in prison. How might the plot of the story change?

Write your ideas in the boxes below. Then read them to a small group of classmates. Together, combine

ideas and write a new version of Boris’s story.

13

Original Plot New Plot

1. Introduction1. Introduction

2. Complications2. Complications

3. Climax3. Climax

4. Resolution4. Resolution

Plot




14

Please Do Eavesdrop!

Name Date

You’ve probably had the following experience: You’re out walking or standing in line someplace.

You hear someone you don’t know telling about something that happened to her or him. You

just hear a tiny part of the story, though, because you or the teller moves on. Yet the part you

did hear intrigues you. You wonder what the whole story is.

Choose one of the five overheard remarks below. Then use it as the basis of a story plot. On the

lines at the bottom of the page, write the outline of the story. Share your outline with some

classmates and get their input.

Outline of My Story

Introduction

Complications

Climax

Resolution

What I Overheard

“. . . and then he atethe wrong one!”

“She’s so brave! Shewalked right up to them

and said that . . .”

“Yeah, I lost my job, but thatwas because of the cat . . .”

“Well, I didn’tfool you, but yousure did fool me!”

“The next thing he didwas kick the door open.”

Plot




Plot Storyboard

Name Date

Creating a storyboard can help you think through a plot. Draw a picture in each box that

illustrates each part of your plot. Then use the storyboard to write your story.

Now, on a separate sheet of paper, write the story.

15

Introduction Complications

Climax Resolution

Plot




Making

Improvements

Name Date

Like all writers, now and then you’re going to write a story that just doesn’t turn out the way

you wanted it to. What went wrong? Can you fix it? Maybe so, if you take another look at the

plot. Try the procedure that follows.

1. Briefly summarize the plot of your story.

2. Tell what part of the plot you like best.

3. What is it that you don’t like about your plot? Be specific.

4. Consult with a classmate. What are her or his ideas about how to improve

that part of the plot?

5. On a separate sheet of paper, revise your story, using the ideas for

improvement.

16

Plot

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